We all know of the death penalty...

Do you think that there should be the death penalty for minors?

No. The death penalty is bad enough (I'm for it in limited situations) and I don't see killing children as a positive thing. I think that people under 18 are still developing a sense of who they are and killing them before they are even 18 is ridiculous.

Take the time to try and reform them.

If they are tried as an adult, I see no reason why capital punishment should be taken off the table. The whole point of trying them as an adult is that they knew exactly what they were doing.

I don't think that minors should have to get the death penalty. If what they did was bad enough, lock themm up for life, but I don't think the death penalty should be applied to them.

Depending on the crime, I say yes especially if they get life in prison. Costs about $30,000 a year to house an inmate so if they lived to be around 70 - 90 that would be wasting $2,100,000 of tax payer money per inmate. But that is only in extreme cases. Anyone who murders others should be murdered, no point in paying money to keep them alive.

No, of cource not! It's too cruel. I don't like that kind of punishment even for adults.

That won't be a good idea because it is cruel and unnecessary.

Everyone always likes to say the death penalty is cruel, but isn't being in prison for your life more cruel than just getting it over with? It should be, but nowadays it isn't, since they have better education, fitness facilities, meals, and more, in prison than the average person has access to. Life in prison is a waste of tax payer's money, when basically we are condemning them to death by natural causes (or at the hands of an inmate). Ideally I'd say we test on the inmates instead of doing animal testing, but people get all touchy and say we have to be humane to humans, while secretly saying we don't have to be humane to animals.

Minors shouldn't be put to death, that's the reason they're being tried as minors, back when they had death for adults. Minors may have a shot at changing who they are, but the majority of the time I think that if they were the kind of person to do it in the first place, they're more than likely to do it again. We should try to rehabilitate them, but if they repeat offend after being 18, than the death penalty should be an option.

Minors shouldn't get the death penalty, to me it just sounds too extreme to kill a child and not give them at least one more chance. Maybe they will never get the chance to leave prison, but at least give them the chance to live a life out. It just doesn't sound morally right to kill a minor when they haven't even fully matured yet.

If the minors did something that they are being tryed as adults, I guess. Really I dont know though, capital punishment is grey area for me.


I remember watching something where they said it can actually cost more money to put them on death row, then to keep them in prison till they die. Something to do with like a bunch of appeals in court or something it didnt really make alota sense.

But ill try to find it and see what they were talking about.

I think that if they are being tried as an adult and they did something bad enough to put it on the table had then been and adult (serial killings or something along those lines), then yes. Honestly, if the Columbine Shooters had survived and gone to trial would you really have been that upset if they had gotten the death penalty?

Originally posted by BTowns

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Ideally I'd say we test on the inmates instead of doing animal testing, but people get all touchy and say we have to be humane to humans, while secretly saying we don't have to be humane to animals.

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That's a really interesting point, to run experiments and tests on inmates. I'm not particularly sure whether or not I agree with it, but it's a thought I had never heard before.

As far as death penalty goes, I'm not sure where I lie with it. I used to be against it, but it now seems to me as if it is justified for the worst criminals out there.

Definitely not, if the minor has done something that horrible there must be a reason for it other than their own doing. Unless there is some kind of epidemic where more and more minors are committing unforgivable crimes, i'll still stand by it. I still agree with the death penalty for adults though.

I think if the child is that evil to deserve the death penalty then go for it.
Because I would rather them be dead then grow up and cause even worse crimes to be commited.
Just because they are a child does not mean they dont know right from wrong and it doesnt mean they can be rehabilitated.

I think that this brings out the crueler side in all of us. Its impossible to really say unless we know the exact situation which we are talking about- what happened, why, and who did it. If a two year old accidentally shot her mother because the mother was being careless and left a gun lying around (my examples are getting stranger and stranger), then there is really no charge there. But if a 17 year old plans the murder of fellow classmates and sets of a bomb in the cafeteria or does something like the Columbine Massacre, I don't exactly know where to stand. I'm leaning towards the death penalty for that one, but seriously, who are we to impose judgment on people we haven't even met?

hoguan : is it cruel and unnecessary for a twelve-year old boy and his buddy to beat an eighty year-old woman to death for fun? And also, by saying it is cruel to give a kid the death penalty, you are saying they are not as important as an adult. I believe everyone should be treated the same. The only reason more kids aren't in prison is that they just don't do as many unlawful things as adults. I'm almost thirty and have yet to get more than an appearance in court for an accident I got into when I was twenty or so. I was so nervous, I almost cried. If you are so twisted you can kill someone, you deserve what you get.

Bobbynibbles : There are other ways to punish them not just by death. Basically it is a cruel way to punish them.

hoguan : if there is a thirteen-year old kid that beat an old woman to death, would you want that freak out in the streets in forty years, when he can buy a machine gun off the black market and go on a killing spree? and what makes the kid any different than a grown man who does the same thing? You can't say that the kid doesn't know any better. I'm fairly sure that even horrible parents would teach their kid not to kill. we execute adult killers every day. do you now believe in the death penalty at all? Remember that life is about decisions and you have to live with what you do.

Bobbynibbles : It is half and half period, so don't reply to my post again.

hoguan : Um, I can't reply to your post? if I can read correctly, you started by replying to MY post. And that's something that is wrong with america today. we treat kids like they can't and don't know what they do. They may not have the foresight of adults, but they surely know what they are doing.